


Forest Girl

by reptilianraven



Category: Homestuck
Genre: 1849, Alternate Universe, F/F, Victorian era, don't ask why it is set in 1849 because i have no answer okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 03:26:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/498944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reptilianraven/pseuds/reptilianraven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose meets an odd girl in the forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forest Girl

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a multi chapter fic but i kinda deflated at the end when i realized that i already am juggling two multi chapter fics and adding another one would be stupid so this is a oneshot hooray.
> 
> a super big thank you to the person who proofread this thing, [Jasey](http://www.invisibleblubber.tumblr.com/)  
> 

You are only eight years old but you are fairly certain of two things.

First, nobody takes you seriously if you are a child acting like a child.

Second, nobody takes you seriously if you are a child acting like an adult.

These are generally advanced thoughts for someone of your age but nobody really appreciates that fact, honestly it is starting to get awfully tiring. You just can’t win with people. Being the only child of a prestigious family puts a lot of responsibility onto you.

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you want a break. Little did you know that you were going to get something much better very soon.

It happened on a Thursday afternoon. You were practicing the playing the violin, you no longer needed the aid of sheet music; you have mastered learning by ear. The notes came easily, every press against the string was natural, the slight pressure you put on the bow was easy. The sound created was beautiful, you weren’t one for bragging but it was a known fact that you were good at this. You finish the piece and set down your violin into its case. 

When you close the case David speaks from where he is sitting. 

“Okay, now that you’re done doing that, can we please do something relatively interesting” He whines as he slumps into the couch. 

“Why don’t you read a book?” You suggest.

“All the books you own are boring” He retaliates.

“Well what do _you_ suggest?” 

“Let’s go to the forest” He answers and you sigh quietly.

“Now what would we do in there dearest cousin?” You slip in some obvious sarcasm and he narrows his blood red eyes at you. 

“It’s a lot more fun in there then it is in here” He sighs.

“There is nothing in the forest other from bugs and an occasional pheasant” You place you violin case its shelf.

“Bugs and occasional pheasants are a lot more interesting than anything I have seen in this house so far”

“Fine, you go to the forest by yourself”

“But that’s boring too! I need someone to be there so that when I do something amazing you will be there to witness it” He slumps even further into the chair, falling onto the floor.

You ponder making this debate longer but the result is inevitable, if you don’t do as he wishes he would just mope for days.

“Okay fine” He instantly bolts up into a standing position.

“Really?”

“Yes really” You smile at him and you decide that you can act like a child today. David will never take you seriously no matter what age you are; oddly you are fine with that.

\------

It’s relatively cold outside today, you can smell the grass, you can hear the birds, it’s a nice day in the forest all in all. The summer sun is hidden behind your mansion, shielding you from the midday heat. David walks beside you, he picks up a rock and throws it deeper into the forest, birds fly away.

“Can we go to the well?” He asks.

“That is quite deep into the forest” You tell him. You usually wouldn’t worry about going deep into the forest, you know that most of the generally dangerous animals only come out at night, but Mother strongly advises you to stay away from the forest completely. You will tell her about your trip into the forest when she comes home later, that will be entertaining.

“I don’t care” He goes out of his way to step on a dry leaf. “There are usually cool things around the well, I found this slingshot there” He takes his slingshot out of a bag he was carrying.

“Mother tells me that someone died there” He raises his eyebrows, suddenly interested.

“Seriously?” 

“Well she could have made up the story to make sure that I stay away from the well, but the story is quite interesting”

“Do tell” You smile.

“An old man in his seventies was found in the bottom of the well, he broke his neck, nobody knew him”

“Huh weird” He stares at you whilst walking before tripping over a tree root. 

“Indeed” You help him up.

After walking for a bit you reach your destination. The well is covered in moss and vines but it is still fully functional, water still passes through it. When you step on a twig a few birds startle and fly away. Out of nowhere David gestures for you to be quiet.

“Shhhh” 

“Why what’s wrong” You ask him.

“I think I can see a raccoon or something” He grabs a sizeable rock from the ground, places it against the elastic of the slingshot before pulling it back.

“Now what would you gain from killing a raccoon with a rock?” 

“I would gain a dead raccoon, that’s what” He has always had this odd obsession with dead things, he keeps them in jars and preserve them in odd ways. It looks like a raccoon will be joining his collection.

You hear the shuffling of leaves and you can see a bit of motion behind the well, it’s odd though, it seems a bit too big to have been caused by a mere raccoon.

“Are you even sure that it is a raccoon” He squints as he takes aim.

“Well what else would it be?” Flawless reasoning from your cousin. He lets go of the elastic you hear what sounds like a howl followed by a whimper. 

“I don’t think that was a raccoon” He stands and runs to the well “I don’t think it’s dead either!” You shout at him but he ignores you.

You run after him and that is when you hear a snarl. The first thing that comes into your head is a wolf, but the wolves only come out at night. You stop thinking when you hear David scream. You see him running away from the well, he is holding his arm and you can see blood. Fear courses through your veins as he shouts at you.

“ROSE RUN!” 

You turn as fast as you can and run in the direction of your mansion. You don’t even know what you are running from but you don’t care. You see David pass you, he tells you to run faster but you trip over a root and you fall and hit your head. The world starts spinning and everything is blurry, you can faintly him shouting for you, you can faintly hear the sound of a snarling animal and you can faintly hear the sound of crackling. Screams and snarls and colors all meshing up into one big confusing sensation.

It all goes black.

\------

You wake up to the smell of the forest, to the sound of wolves howling and to the sight of darkness. You try to sit up but you nearly pass out with fear with what you see sleeping on your lap. A wolf, but not a normal wolf obviously, its fur is completely white. You can see its perilously sharp canines peeking out of its mouth, it also has a bandage wrapped around the base of its left front leg. You try to move it but it immediately snarls at you and you stop. You recognize the snarl and that is when it click in your head that this was the wolf that attacked you and David.

You carefully look around and try to asses where you are, sadly it is nighttime and you don’t seem to recognize this part of the forest. Sighing, you carefully lie back down, hoping that the wolf would get off soon enough.

You hear and see a bit movement at a nearby bush and you start to panic a bit. Whatever is out there could very well be anything, it would most probably be the rest of the pack of wolves or something worse even. What comes out of the bush is very well not an animal though.

“Oh you’re awake!”

A girl around your age with very long and messy hair hops out of the bush on all fours. She comes closer and you flinch, this causes the wolf on your lap to growl in its sleep again. The girl glances at the wolf then back at you before speaking again.

“Becquerel! Get off of her this instant!” She fearlessly whacks the wolf on its head and the wolf wakes up and whimpers before scampering off of you. You let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m really sorry about Bec, he just likes snuggling” She giggles and you just stare at her. She gives you an odd look before coming closer.

Now that you can see her better you can see that she is covered in dirt, leaves and scratches. She has leaf green eyes and buckteeth that poke out of her mouth just a bit. She tilts her head slightly before speaking again.

“Hey violin girl” You assume that she is addressing you. “Can’t you talk or something?” You nod.

“Then why aren’t you talking then?” You open your mouth to say something but you don’t know what to reply, so you just switch to default.

“Uh….ah” You fumble for words. “Hello?” That sounded more like a question but that will do. She smiles brightly at you.

“Hi there!” She giggles and you smile just the slightest bit. “Your name is Rose right?”

“Yes….how did you know?” 

“Well I heard you and slingshot boy talking awhile ago” 

“David”

“What?” She raises her eyebrows.

“His name is David……the one who shot uh” You gesture over at the wolf.

“Oh the rude boy who hurt Becquerel!” She suddenly looks angry and you flinch. She sees this and she calms down. 

“Gosh I’m sorry I didn’t mean to shout”

“Oh it’s quite alright”

“I’m also sorry about Bec biting him, Bec was just really scared” You suddenly remember that he was injured and worry fills your head. Again, she reads your emotions like an open book.

“He got back to the mansion safely, there’s no need to worry” She puts her hand on your shoulder and you instinctively twitch again.

“By the way, my name is Jade” She smiles that bright smile of hers again and it must be contagious because you find yourself smiling too.

Of course it as at this moment that you remembered that the people back at the mansion would probably be very worried.

“Jade?”

“Yes, Rose?”

“Do you by any chance know the way back to the mansion? It would be best if I get home soon” 

“Of course, follow me!” You stand and brush off the dirt on your clothes. You look to Jade, expecting her to stand but instead the starts crawling on all fours. She notices that you’d been staring and not walking and she grabs your attention.

“Come on let’s go” She tips her head in the direction she is walking towards.

You quickly catch up with her with one thought in your head. 

_What and odd girl._

\------

For a while the walk is filled with an uneasy silence. Well it was at least uneasy for you, you were walking behind a girl who was walking on all fours and from the corner of your eye you could see the wolf following close behind. This silence would drive you insane, so you speak.

“Jade?” She turns hear head a bit but doesn’t stop moving.

“Yes Rose?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if you just stood up?” 

“What?” She stops crawling and she looks up at you, looking truly puzzled.

“You know” You gesture at yourself. “Stand up on two legs?”

She sits down and looks at her palms before glancing back at you then at the wolf behind you then back at her palms.

“I guess I’m more used to walking like this” She rubs the back of her neck. “But I could try!” She follows up brightly.

You extend your arm out and she takes it, you pull her up. She is quite wobbly on her legs at first. She almost falls but you catch her before she reaches the ground, she laughs happily.

“Wow this is hard, how do you manage to do this” She giggles in between her words while you sling her arm over your shoulder to support her.

“I think the real question is how you obviously can’t” You smile at her and you think more about it. “Why exactly do you find this so hard?”

You take a step and she follows, leaning heavily on you.

“Well after my grandfather died, I only had Becquerel to take care of me” You start walking at a steady pace now. “I just kind of followed what he did” You look behind you and surely the wolf, Becquerel, you correct yourself, is following closely behind. You suddenly realize something.

“Wait, so you were raised by this wolf?”

“Yes” She tugs you a bit to the right and you follow.

“Where do you even live?”

“Here in the forest” She looks at you as if it was obvious.

“All alone?”

“Well I had Bec of course silly” She smiles as if there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

“But…….”

“Bec is my best friend! And he takes care of me so I guess I am okay” She smiles even brighter; you didn’t even know that was possible. 

“And that is sufficient for you?” You ask, amazed.

“Well of course” She is leaning less and less against you. “But I guess I do get a bit lonely, Bec is a quiet type”

The both of you are silent for a bit after that again. She then carefully removes her arm from around your neck, you shiver at the loss of warmth. She wobbles a bit and looks like she is about to fall but she stays up right, you applaud.

“I’m standing!” She states excitedly.

“Congratulations” She takes her hand out and you hold it while you walk the rest of the way.

Faster than you would have wanted it, you see the mansion straight ahead after a few more trees, lights gleaming through the windows. Jade squeezes your hand and she let’s go. You look at her and she is looking down and has the slightest frown on her face. For someone who always seems so happy, she looks absolutely sorrowful with any hint of sadness.

“There’s the mansion……” She bites her lip, Becquerel rubs against her leg.

“Indeed” She looks up tries to smile.

You dig your shoe into the dirt while you think of something to say but out of nowhere she hugs you. You are taken by surprise but you hug her back. She pulls away.

“Goodbye Rose” 

“Farewell Jade” She turns walks into the forest and you hear the leaves crackle under each of her steps. You get an idea and you immediately run after her. She opens her mouth but you speak first.

“I can teach you how to play the violin next time” You say quickly.

“Next time?”

You feel your face get a bit warm “I want to see you again” She smiles the brightest you have ever seen her smile.

“Really?”

“Yes really” She jumps and hugs you and you laugh as you pat her back.

You walk back to the mansion and once you step inside you have people worrying about you everywhere you turn. David tells you that he was very worried. Mother tipsily tells you that she thought, and you quote “got eaten by a unicorn”.

Everybody asked you what happened and where you were and how you got back and you just shrugged at every question.

You go to sleep focusing on one fact.

_It will be awfully hard to teach Jade how to play the violin._

**Author's Note:**

> i still kind of want to make this a multi chapter fic..........


End file.
